I spent the first chapter of my career in corporate America, working in the space of leadership and organizational development. I also served as a commissioned officer in the US Army where I served in the Cavalry and in Aviation as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot. After returning from service in Iraq, I started gothamCulture, a consulting firm specializing in helping leaders achieve exceptional performance through the lens of organizational culture and leadership. Over the last nine years as an organizational psychologist and entrepreneur myself, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with some of the most impressive business leaders out there as they strive to manage the dynamic tensions of a fast-changing business environment. I contribute regularly to a variety of online publications and I work to share the many lesson I’ve learned along the way with others in a format that generates dialogue and debate amongst my readers. You can reach me at www.gothamculture.com, on Twitter @gothamculture, on LinkedIn and on Google+. As always, 100% of my publications are gluten free.

Today's Leaders Must Learn To Thrive In Disequilibrium

Many leaders today believe that striving for equilibrium is the key to building a healthy business. A balanced business outlook, a balanced team, and a balanced budget will result in success. No stress, no fuss, no problems, right? Wrong.

Despite a push toward e-commerce and introducing a customer loyalty program, Sears has been slow to adapt to shoppers’ changing tastes and is struggling to retain its shrinking customer base.

In today’s business world, change is inevitable. And if you’re only striving for equilibrium — which is all but impossible — you will merely continue doing the same thing, year after year, as the world moves on.

Borders learned this the hard way when it failed to adapt to its customers’ changing media consumption habits, first with its CD sales in the 1990s, then with online book sales and e-readers in the 2000s.

Rather than trying to bring things to a state of equilibrium, more business leaders should be embracing disequilibrium, a state of instability that puts stress on a system and the people within it. Disequilibrium is what builds strong teams, successful businesses, and ultimately, great leaders.

Why Disequilibrium Is Vital to Effective Leadership

Disequilibrium in the workplace is crucial to the development of strong leaders and strong organizations because instability is what drives innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness. It’s what turns average leaders into visionaries and average businesses into pioneers of industry.

Take Amazon, for instance. Its profit margins have always been slim because Jeff Bezos plays the long game: relentlessly serving customers and continually reinvesting in the company with disruptions such as package delivery lockers and drones.

People who are able to view disequilibrium as an opportunity (rather than a threat) will be best suited to lead in today’s business environment because an organization that leans toward chaos is primed to find creative solutions to setbacks.

Disequilibrium That Works

One of the best examples of an organization that embraces disequilibrium is the military. Its training for junior officers is designed to put them in states of stress and push them to their limits. In the end, this method develops leaders who are able to function in nebulous, high-stress situations.

So how do you become an effective leader in an unstable environment? Here are four steps to get you started:

1. Understand your role as a leader. As the leader of an organization, you are responsible for driving positive change. That means you should constantly question the way things are done, purposely throw the system off balance, and create opportunities for learning and development for yourself and others within the organization.

2. Identify what works and what doesn’t. Evaluate which aspects of the organization are continuing to add value to the business, and strive to improve upon them. At the same time, determine which aspects no longer work and do away with them — even if that means drastically changing processes and outdated traditions.

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